Women communicators join Hábitat Dominicana to build for a mother

• The volunteers built a new floor for a home to improve a family’s health and quality of life. It is the first time Hábitat Dominicana has held this women’s construction brigade.

Santo Domingo, Monday 30 May 2022. To mark Dominican Mother’s Day, Habitat for Humanity Dominican Republic, together with volunteer communicators Jatnna Tavárez, Miralba Ruíz, Barbara Plaza and Paloma Rodríguez, held the first edition of Women Build in the Dominican Republic.

Women Build gives women the opportunity to take a proactive step to serve their communities and build strength, stability and self-reliance together. Women have the ability and determination needed to build homes, so that women and their families can have a decent place to live.The communicators built the floor of the home of Marcia, a hard-working and brave single mother who has got ahead thanks to her work as a domestic worker in family homes and her small business selling empanadas. Through a loan from one of Hábitat Dominicana’s partner financial institutions, she has been building her house step by step.The women and mother influencers built to support Marcia and celebrate Mother’s Day with her, because they know how important it is for a mother to have a decent home where her family can look after their health, study, feel comfortable and have a space to share happy moments and create lasting memories.

Thanks to the support of Hábitat Dominicana’s Esperanza Paso a Paso (Hope Step by Step) project, this empowered mother, an example to other women, has taken out six loans so far, allowing her to improve her home little by little. The house used to be made of wood, leaving it vulnerable to natural hazards; today it is made of block and is much safer.

At Hábitat Dominicana, together with the communicators, we wanted to help Marcia and surprise her by building a polished concrete floor, making a positive impact and helping her enjoy a better quality of life, health and hygiene for this special date.

The communicators spent time with the homeowner, learned her story and identified with all the effort she has made to help her family get ahead and progress. They also worked together, with help from the brigade’s construction team, and side by side built the floor, an experience for which they felt very grateful.

“We’ve lived a beautiful moment that has made an impact on Marcia’s life and on us as an organisation. We’re happy to have helped Marcia and to honour her effort as a brave mother, and more than grateful to you for saying yes as soon as we contacted you and joining this cause. We invite others to keep joining in; we can’t do it without the involvement of women, volunteers, companies and individuals,” said Cesarina Fabian, national director of Hábitat Dominicana.

“I’m so happy. Thank you very much, Hábitat Dominicana, for your support. My children will be more comfortable and my grandchildren will be able to play on the floor when they visit. Thank you, ladies, for coming together to build in my home,” said Marcia.

As well as these volunteer communicators, we were joined by Carmen Esteva de Marranzini, leader of the Women Entrepreneurs initiative in the country.

Women Build, or women’s construction brigade, took place on Friday 27 May at Marcia’s home in El Carril, Haina, San Cristóbal province. It is the first time the initiative has been held in the country, and Hábitat Dominicana aims to hold a women-only construction brigade every year.

About Women Build

Since 1991, Women Build volunteers from Habitat for Humanity have come together to build stronger, safer communities around the world. The brigade gives women the opportunity to take a proactive step to serve their communities and build strength, stability and self-reliance together.

More than 5,700 women have taken part around the world, in the United States, India, Mexico, Paraguay and Canada, and now the Dominican Republic joins them.

Any woman, company or institution that wants to learn how to build a house or a home improvement is invited to join us for the second edition. You can also support the programme with a donation and contact us at www.habitatdominicana.org and on social media at @habitatdominicana. No previous experience is needed. Volunteers work under the guidance of construction professionals, alongside other volunteers and future Habitat for Humanity homeowners. It is a rewarding experience for everyone involved and contributes hand in hand to the community.

Women helping women send a positive and powerful message.

About Habitat for Humanity Dominican Republic

Habitat for Humanity is a global non-profit, non-governmental organisation working to ensure everyone has a decent place to live, through programmes focused on housing microfinance, minimising risk and increasing disaster response.

Habitat for Humanity Dominican Republic empowers families to build strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter. Since it began its work in 1986, the organisation has delivered more than 37,000 housing solutions and impacted around 188,000 people.

Hábitat Dominicana contributes to the country by improving the living conditions of families affected by the qualitative and quantitative housing deficit. It does this by developing programmes that give low-income families access to housing microfinance with technical construction assistance, and by creating financial education programmes that support and help reduce the deficit. We empower through housing.

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